“I’ll kill him,” is all he’d said instead, his voice calm but heavily soaked with cold reserve.
“You can’t,” mother had argued, looking so weak as a human, beside his raw strength as a pure-blood Draugr. “Just take her away with you, please.”
“No!” Ejner had said resolutely. “He’ll die for this. He’s done this once before, with my older half-sister Cordelia. I took her away too when I found out, like you are asking me to now. But Cordelia had lived for over half a century before I was born. Fifty four years spent being abused is too long a time to just simply forget and start to recover, so the moment I brought her away with me, she ran away and hid. I found her more than twenty years after locked up in an old mine shaft having starved herself to death. That’s what father’s abuse had done to her, made her dream of one day having the freedom to kill herself. If there was any other way to kill herself other than by starving, she’d have long done it. However under father’s house, he’d never have let her starve because her blood was too precious for him, and he needed a dose every evening. And even that wasn’t enough..” Ejner’s voice had been bitter and cold, full of remorse and regret, and heavily burdened with the guilt he felt over his sister’s fate.
“I made him promise that if he ever did it again, I’d personally kill him. That is why I make sure to visit every year, stay with you all summer, because I’m looking for signs of him abusing you. I never knew, dear sister..”
And then the most surprising thing had happened. Her brother had broken down, bloody tears running down his face that he rushed to wipe away, which only smeared them, staining his face. Mother had rushed with a large piece of hanky to attempt to clean his face, but he’d pushed her away roughly.
“I’ll kill him!” Is all Ejner had said, before rushing out.
Everything from that moment was yet another blur. Father and son had wrestled throughout the house, if the crashing sounds and crumbling walls were anything to go by.
Anja and her mother were still cowering in Ejner’s quarters when Lady Signe, Ejner’s mother had walked in, her sharp eyes finding them.
“Use the servant’s staircase. You’ll find Old Torben waiting for you at the bottom, and he’ll drive you to my brother’s house, where you’ll be safe. I’ve left him with a note..”
However anything she might have said next was left unspoken as she flew across the room, limbs flailing over them before she landed against the opposite wall, and in front of her stood her nightmare. Her father.
“Run Anja!” Lady Signe had called, flying from where she’d crumbled to meet in the middle of the room with her much older and thereby stronger husband, crashing together with violent reverberations that shook not only the room they were in but the whole house, as Anja’s mother scooped her into her arms and ran towards the servants’ door.
However instead of moving forward right as they were within the door’s reach, they began to move backwards. And it took Anja only a split second to register that her mother’s feet weren’t touching the ground anymore.
Her father flung her and her mother against the opposite wall without much difficulty, but the exertion was too great for a mere human to take, and Anja felt her mother die instantly, upon her head’s impact with the dark stone walls.
“Mama..” is the only sound that left her lips before her father picked her up again. Mother and son now attacked her father, but Klaus had lived longer than both of them, and was as well much stronger, easily shoving them off him while maintaining hold of her, his hands around her neck, squeezing her air out.
“You little beast..” he was saying, but Anja wasn’t scared for the first time in her life. She almost welcomed it. She was yet young, and deluded into thinking that a Draugr could be strangled to death, and was looking forward to meeting her mother in the next life, who wasn’t part of this world anymore.
However Ejner had found a large boulder from somewhere, probably part of the now crumbling house, and knocked the back of the head of their father with so much force that Klaus released his clutch around her neck and collapsed to the floor.
Anja remembered being disappointed at that moment. She’d hoped to die.
“Run!” Her brother had commanded yet again, and she’d picked to her then shaking thin legs and done just that- run!
She ran down the dark servants staircase, meeting with old Torben halfway, who’d promptly carried her into his arms and borne her away.
It was much later that she was to discover that Ejner had drained away all their father’s blood after subduing him, and buried him in an unmarked grave where he undoubtedly starved to death.
Ejner was later to be tried by the High Council for the crime, and was sentenced to fifty years imprisonment with limited rations. Though it was a capital offence to kill a fellow Draugr, his father’s death was justified because of his despicable transgressions against his half-blood children. The punishment was given so as to remind Ejner never to undermine the authority of the High Council again. He should have brought the matter to them and let them handle it.
Nordskov Abbey crumbled and burned away after that fateful day, many servants dying along with it. It was years later that the remains of Lady Signe were found in a crumbled in dungeon where she’d locked herself up to starve to death, crudely engraved on the stone wall beside her a simple note.
Anja dear,
I never knew.
I’m sorry.
“How is he?” Anja now asked of her niece, Raven.
“As fine as can be expected,” Raven answered, a melancholic flicker in her eyes. Anja enterpreted it to mean that Ejner was still haunted after those events that led to their father’s death.
“He’s governor of Area Two now.”
“Really?” Anja asked, and she couldn’t help it but be proud of her brother.
“Yes,” Raven said, smiling wider now, slightly more reassured.
“Why aren’t you there with him?” Anja asked of the young woman.
“I wished to meet you. And though he never mentioned it, he wished to have a direct report of your well-being.” Anja frowned at this revelation.
“He couldn’t have know. You were here the first day I was captured..”
“Kjeld knew exactly where you were for months,” Raven surprised her by saying. “The information was kept secret, of course. But he let father know, and father confided in me.”
“Why did it then take months to capture me?”
“No one knows,” Raven said. “Pendo seems to think that Kjeld and Jon wished to give you a chance to escape again. But when you didn’t take it, they decided to just bring you in once and for all.”
“Pendo.. she’s the pure-blood with Jon?”
“Yes,” Raven said hesitantly. “But..”
“But what?” Anja asked.
“We don’t say that anymore,” Xiu now moved to speak. “We don’t label Draugrs as pure-bloods or half-bloods anymore..”
“What utter nonsense!” She promptly declared, causing the two young Draugrs to wince as though slapped. “Why not?”
“Because.. we are all but one people..”
“Like I said, what utter nonsense.”
“Those two terms attempt to divide us, make us..”
“Not saying that you have a nose, will not make your nose go away, little niece!” Anja then said with a bitter laugh.
“No, but it might divert the attention from the nose. At least long enough for other more important issues to be weighed.” Anja now looked at her niece under a new light, slightly impressed, glad to find her not only beautiful but also knowledgeable and enlightened.
“Maybe, maybe not. Now both of you leave my room, and rest assured that I shall appropriately attire myself for the proceedings.”
They looked between themselves hesitantly for a while longer, but then soon scampered to their feet and moved fast towards the door.
“And Raven!” Anja called before the door swung shut after them. The dark haired gir
l stuck her head through the door, the black and white rings in her eyes glowing with interest as she looked back at her with open curiosity.
“Do say hello to your father, next time he calls,” she said, biting back a smile.
“You may do so yourself, for he shall be present for the council’s summit,” her niece said, before leaving, the door shutting noiselessly behind them, a key turning to lock her in.
Her beloved brother was coming!
VIII
The day did come, the day that she apparently was to face the music. But the person that wheeled in her breakfast trolley was someone she was ill prepared to meet. As yet.
Ejner Nordskov.
She remained right where she was, sitting on the cold windowsill in shock as she watched him push the trolley into her room, his eyes holding hers the whole time, the door swinging shut behind him.
Dark ringed pairs of eyes met identically paired eyes. Fear, uncertainty, guilt, hope- some of the thick emotions swirling between them, and dread for the unknown, especially of how one would receive the other.
“Sister!”
“Brother!”
“You’re well?”
“I am.”
“I.. I’m glad to hear it.”
“Thank you.” An uncomfortable silence settled over them then, eyes searching one other, scouring each other for whatever bit of information they could gather, without the discomfort of speaking.
“I brought.. Your breakfast is here,” Ejner finally caved in and said with great discomfort, pushing the tray forward towards her.
“Thank you,” is all she muttered, stopping the trolley rolling her way with her foot before it could crush against the wall, still seated on the window sill, her eyes still assessing her brother, never leaving his face the whole time.
“I met your child,” she also conceded to speak, nothing better coming to mind. Now he managed to smile, and she mirrored his expression easily. Raven is a lovely child.
“She’s beautiful,” Anja went on to compliment.
“That she is,” Ejner confirmed, his voice betraying the pride of a loving father.
“A tad too curious, though,” she interjected. They both chuckled at this, though the air was still heavily ridden with unease.
“That she is,” her brother confirmed, his smile widening, though only slightly.
With that done, another heavy silence weighed down on them again.
“Are they.. taking good care of you here?”
“Yes. Well.. As good care as one can expect.”
“I.. I hope it is better than that. If I didn’t think it’d leave you worse off, I’d have kept you in my house.”
She lowered her head at that revelation and picked up a juicy looking red apple. Yes, staying in the same house with Ejner might bring back dark memories that she was still trying to suppress, love him as she may.
“Well, I’ll leave you to your breakfast now,” he then said, looking very awkward and ill at ease as his eyes swept over the room.
“Okay,” she answered, unsure on what other appropriate response there was for her to say.
“Ummh.. Good luck in there, sister,” Ejner finally said, straightening up to meet her eyes again.
“Thank you, brother,” she quietly said, to which he nodded. He started walking away towards the door, stopping with his hand on the door knob to turn her way again.
“Don’t.. Do not be worried. Most of us are sympathetic,” he told her, his eyes having found hers again. She nodded yet again, unsure of how else to react.
“I.. I wish to call in on you later,” he went on further to say, his hand still on the door. “Regardless of the verdict. I’d like to see you again.”
She nodded to this, for she too wished to see him again, despite the fact that they reminded each other of so dark a time.
He nodded back a thank you before hurriedly walking out her room, a key turning in the lock once the door swung shut after him.
She wasn’t nervous. On the contrary, she couldn’t be more at peace. Today would be her make it or break it day, so to speak. Her many attempts to get away these past months had been futile, for the grills at her windows are unhingeable, the thick heavily reinforced concrete walls unbreachable, and the single door in the room rivals that of most secure vaults. All her attempts to escape had been futile so far. Whatever she tried- all she managed to do was just rattle something or dislocate her shoulder.
That’s when she’d come to the conclusion that she’d have a better chance escaping from here the day she was let out of this very comfortable room she was jailed in.
The day was finally here, and her brother’s presence should not deter her from her goal. She’d escape, because an eternity of running is better than living with beings that condoned what her father had done to her and the elder sister she never met, and what Kjeld’s parents had done. Half-bloods should not be enslaved by pure-blood families for feeding.
Her escape would have to be today.
She ate her breakfast slowly, taking her time, all the while replaying in her mind the layout of the compound as she remembered it as she’d driven up with Jon that first time.
It’s both Jon and Kjeld that came to get her from her room, to go and meet up with the council. They stood on either side of the doorway and patiently waited on her.
“It’s time,” Jon said, his eyes endearing as they assessed her. She ignored the kindness in them though, for to let it in would be to let in the hurt of losing him. Over the last century, even though she hadn’t been with him, she’d always thought him as hers. But now she knew for sure that he was hers no more. He was Pendo’s, the pure-blood.
She slid off the windowsill she was still sitting on while having her breakfast after her brother left, and landed on her bare feet. She reached for her dark coat lying on the foot of her bed, throwing it over her shoulders as she dragged out the shoe-box from under the bed.
“Don’t be nervous,” Jon was saying as she stuck her feet into her court shoes and brushed back her currently lacklustre hair with her fingers.
“Remember that I’ll be there,” Kjeld then added, as though that ought to be encouraging news to her.
He was partly the cause for all this, all matters considered, for he never stood up for her against his parents and stopped them from feeding on her. And it is the fear of involuntary feeding that had now made it very hard for her to re-enter into Draugr society.
“And I’ll be right outside the council room,” Jon attempted to reassure her as well, with better result, having a better understanding of her to know that being in the same room with Kjeld is not exactly reassuring.
Anja remained silent as she followed with them out of the room.
“Just speak the truth, and all else will be fine,” Kjeld went on to say as they made their way down the corridor.
Anja barely missed a step, her heartbeat remaining regular, her countenance clear as they approach the window at the end of the corridor that she’d long studied from her room.
It’s there that she’d planned the escape to start.
At just the precise moment, she faked a misstep, twisting her ankle enough that it was believable, the two men with her who held her in high enough regard to care turned with worried looks her way.
And it was at that precise moment that she aimed a flying kick at her former love, sending him hurtling down the staircase with great force, and while catching the pure-blood by surprise she pounced on him and sank her fangs into his neck.
She fed on his blood with near manic intensity, gouging it as fast as she could while also letting most of it slip out of her mouth, for soon more Draugrs would be coming to check on the thud caused by Jon’s fall. She was not really drinking his blood as much as she was sucking it out of him. She was more determined in draining him as much as she could in these fleeting seconds she had, so as to considerably weaken him against following after her.
“3, 2, 1..!” She counted to herself before lifti
ng her head from his neck, blocking out the sounds of boots pouncing up the stairs as she kicked hard against the back of the now very much weakened pure-blood, sending him down the stone staircase too before throwing herself against the window, crashing through the thick glass and leaping out the three stories or more.
The moment her feet landed on solid ground, she took off running, ignoring the bullets now raining on her back, that would not kill her but the blood loss would considerably weaken her.
There were more guards than she previously estimated, and her blood rations had seen to it that she wasn’t as strong as she could be. However what she lacked in strength, she easily compensated for with her quick thinking, darting between the trees dotting the lawn, running in zigzag motions so as to confuse her shooters, and reserving her energy for that last sprint before she tore off the ground and made to leap over the fence.
A well aimed throw star caught her mid-air, embedding deep into her shoulder before unlocking in place, shredding her flesh in the process to cause so much damage that the blood loss effects was almost instantaneous, bringing her down from her yet incomplete jump to land on the over 3000 voltage fence, instantly shocking her system into an extreme case of ventricular fibrillation.
But even then, with her muscles and insides spasming out of control, and the idea of safety in captivity right there were she to choose to fall back into the compound, she chose the elusive freedom beyond, and did the unthinkable. She began to attempt to scale the highly charged wall.
Astounded Draugrs waited for her to fall behind. But the worst happened, a pair of guards waited for her on the other side of the fence, and more were coming.
She then realised that even if she made it up and climbed over the fence, the moment she landed on the other side, the two guards would have her in custody. At the moment she was far too weakened to fight the Draugr guards, even though they were half-bloods like her.
Anja also knew that the current running through the fence would not be cut off, as they intended to keep her in here, and cutting it off would allow her to recover and maybe even get away. As her teeth rattled away, her limbs quivering involuntarily, she pondered over her options. To climb down and give in to justice, which would now be considerably worse after her decision to not only attack a pure-blood but to feed on one too. Her other option was to remain on that fence and let the electricity fry her to her death. Few things can kill a Draugr, but she was sure this one could, for the electricity would dry out the blood in her system, and starvation is the surest way to true death. And with that she’d made her decision, using her last ounces of energy to hook her arms and feet into the webs formed by the thick fence bars, even going as far as to break her bones so as to make sure her limbs were hooked in securely, and that not even the violent spasms could dislodge her.
Redemption (Dawn of the Damned Book 1) Page 6
